“He didn’t care about the Constitution at all. He cared about Donald Trump.”
“My name is Don Luepke, I’m from Northeast Indiana. I’m 80 years old and a lifelong Republican, and then voted that direction constantly. And I voted for Donald Trump in 2016, did not in 2020, and I cannot vote for him again this year.
“I mean, when I did vote for him in 2016, I think the sort of deciding factor was the possibility of Supreme Court nominees, et cetera, because I thought that the judicial system was moving in the wrong direction. But as we saw throughout his presidency, there was just sort of a drifting away from what I voted for him for. Lying, cheating, belittling, bullying, bearing false witness coveting, extreme hubris and arrogance, lust, fostering hatred and violence, and the list goes on and on and on.
“In terms of January 6th, actually, months before that I did not vote for Donald Trump. But that was the tipping point, I mean, that was the straw that broke it. Because I just saw him in not a leadership position in any way, shape, or form, but as a deep threat to what our democracy was all involved with. And so to see him really encouraging people to go through and walk up into that Capitol building, take over, assert yourself, we’ve got the rights to do this, that kind of stuff is just not at all what our country is about. We theoretically are very civil-minded, or should be civil-minded, but he has taken us away from that level. So the integrity that he showed that day was nonexistent. Not calling the people off and doing all those other kinds of things, it was just, it was so sad. It was sad for our country. He didn’t care about the Constitution at all. He cared about Donald Trump.
“This business of loyalty towards an individual, you can’t be loyal to an individual. You have to be loyal to principles. And we don’t seem to have that. I am deeply concerned about his leanings towards the Soviet Union, or Russia, and the kinds of things that are happening there. His comments about NATO, about pulling out and doing all those other kinds of things, that’s not what this United States… and it’s not what this world needs. We need sane, sane, thought and contemplation, and again, looking at and addressing the problems that exist and then going about solving them.
“Most of America’s not happy with either candidate, let’s face it. What are we looking for in leaders and in the whole leadership aspect, that matter of integrity, that matter of caring for people, of working for everybody, not just a certain tier of society? We’ve got to go through and be united. I voted for Donald Trump in 2016, but certainly not in 2024. I just can’t do that. Republicans deserve better than this.”